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FICO Decrease after having collection removed?!

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sauer29
Member

FICO Decrease after having collection removed?!

Hello.  As of March 8, I was successful in having a collection account removed from my Equifax credit file.  I now have none.  I waited excitedly for the ScoreWatch alert stating that my score had gone up.  Instead, I lost 1 point and the alert gave this reason:  "This score decrease may be caused by this new reason:  you have a public record or collection in addition to a serious delinquency on your credit report".  Delinquency in the past?  Yes.  Public records?  No.  Collections?  Not anymore.  So I bought my report for today.  I confirmed the absence of collections and public records.  I just can't get my head around losing points for getting a collection off my record.  Any thoughts?  This is gonna drive me nuts.

Message 1 of 25
24 REPLIES 24
atarvuzdar
Established Contributor

Re: FICO Decrease after having collection removed?!

Was the collection very old? If it was an old collection then it may not have been negatively affecting your score very much. Additionally, if removing the collection caused your average age of accounts to decrease enough that could have caused the score drop. It happens sometimes, unfortunately, but the good news is that now you've gotten rid of the collection your score can increase farther than it could have before when your report wasn't quite as clean as it is now.

 

This is presuming, of course, you didn't have any other negative information affecting your report such as higher balances reporting at the same time, etc.

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Message 2 of 25
llecs
Moderator Emeritus

Re: FICO Decrease after having collection removed?!

OP, was this a charge-off or was this a collection?

 

How severe are the remaining delinquency(or -ies)?

 

SW alert reasons should never be taken as a firm reason. SW isn't alerting you to the dropped baddie, since SW doesn't alert to dropped baddies. You are specific on the 3/8 date. Did you pull EQ from somewhere to see that the collection was off?

Message 3 of 25
sauer29
Member

Re: FICO Decrease after having collection removed?!

  I'll attempt to answer the questions posed in the replies without missing anything.  To answer atarvuzdar;  The collection was pretty old, slated to come off next year.  It was only for $91.  Also included in the alert was a balance increase on a credit card.  From $9 to $14.  Could a $4 increase hurt my score?  If that's the case, no sweat.  But I was definitely unnerved by the language of public record or collection that was used in the alert.  To answer llecs; it was a collection (utility bill).  There is an account showing a $0 balance and $0 due from 2007.  Veterans Affairs overpayment.  Status is listed as +120 days late.  Should I dispute that?  And lastly, yes I pulled my free annual report after I got the notice that Equifax resolved my dispute.  I wanted to confirm it was in fact removed.  That was on 3/8.  I probably didn't answer the questions as concisely as I'd like to, but am greatful for the insight.  Thanks!

Message 4 of 25
Ficoseeker
New Member

Re: FICO Decrease after having collection removed?!

Something definetly must have changed.I had a collection from 09 that I successfully managed to get removed from my credit report and My score jumped 75 points (it was the only negative item on my cr.no lates, nothing).maybe a little bit of time will help stabilize your score
Message 5 of 25
guiness56
Epic Contributor

Re: FICO Decrease after having collection removed?!

Message 6 of 25
sauer29
Member

Re: FICO Decrease after having collection removed?!

I'm not sure I understand "rebucketed".  I'm not really familiar with the terminoligy used on here yet.  Shows my ignorance, I suppose.  Anyways, I should have seen a score increase from this, right?  I guess I'll call customer service tomorrow.  I noticed you can call them if you have questions regarding your FICO score.  Just hoping to get some kind of answer.  Sucks to see your score actually decrease when you are taking positive steps...

Message 7 of 25
guiness56
Epic Contributor
Message 8 of 25
sauer29
Member

Re: FICO Decrease after having collection removed?!

Thanks!
Message 9 of 25
llecs
Moderator Emeritus

Re: FICO Decrease after having collection removed?!


@sauer29 wrote:

I'm not sure I understand "rebucketed".  I'm not really familiar with the terminoligy used on here yet.  Shows my ignorance, I suppose.  Anyways, I should have seen a score increase from this, right?  I guess I'll call customer service tomorrow.  I noticed you can call them if you have questions regarding your FICO score.  Just hoping to get some kind of answer.  Sucks to see your score actually decrease when you are taking positive steps...


FICO scoring is complex. FICO built into the formula different tiers or buckets. Your score is also dependent on others' credit. This is actually a good thing so that a person with only a year of credit history isn't directly compared to someone with 30 years of history. Or someone with a BK reporting isn't directly compared to someone with a pristine history. As your credit changes, then you can move from one bucket to another. Sometimes when you change scoring buckets, then your score can drop, but that means you are set up for a larger increase beyond where you could have gone before. 

 

IMO, you weren't rebucketed because you still have a very major baddie reporting. Had you been 100% baddie-free, then I'd guess potential rebucketing. I think something else happened. Where did the collection report on your FICO report? In Accounts or in Collections?

Message 10 of 25
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